


"And we don't believe you ought to be bringing up your little girl this way..."

by Pfefferminztea



Series: Gravitas-Verse [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: I spent too much time on tumblr and I haven't learned how to tag things here yet I'm sorry, Multi, bigots getting their asses handed to them, copyshipping, pregnant Mai, pregnant Mai is very important to me ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:06:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pfefferminztea/pseuds/Pfefferminztea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rory has two mommies.<br/>AND a dad.<br/>But does she have to talk about it at school? Think of the children!</p>
            </blockquote>





	"And we don't believe you ought to be bringing up your little girl this way..."

There’s chewed-up gum melting all over the pavement and the sun is burning a hole in her scalp and there’s really a thousand places where Anzu would rather be right now than here. Even back at her awful desk with her boss screaming at her, at least there was air condition. Or typing up yet another application for a job she’s not entirely sure she even wants. But the thought of poor Rory stuck in a miserably empty classroom for another three hours until her mom makes it back from the gynecologist is just too heartbreaking. Sure, there’s bound to be some older kids around, and of course there’s the teachers. But something tells Anzu that things at her former school haven’t changed so drastically that it's suddenly a nice place for a shy little two year old to spend her Friday afternoon.

And anyway, in half an hour they will be home and enjoying some iced tea that Jou put in the fridge this morning, and this will all be worth it. She pushes through the doors, glad to avoid the sticky area where lots of tiny hands have pressed against the glass all day, and heads up the stairs to the classroom where Rory is spending her after-school hours. The young woman behind the desk raises her head when Anzu knocks and pushes a few damp curls out of her face, but Rory is too deeply engrossed in a jigsaw puzzle to notice. A few other kids do, but quickly go back to ignoring her.

“Hi, I’m here to pick up my...” She has done this many times before, and she knows the teacher knows her, but it still feels awkward. “I’m here to pick up Rory.”

The teacher – WHY won’t she remember what her name is? She’s sure Rory has mentioned it before. But it just won’t come to her. So she just smiles and hopes the other woman won’t notice. The teacher seems embarrassed, and instead of telling Rory to get her things ready or gesturing for Anzu to come in, like she usually does, she quickly gets up and crosses the room to address her in a hushed voice.

“Miss… Mazaki? I’m really sorry. I thought Rory’s parents had received our notice. We can no longer let children be picked up by somebody besides their legal guardian, unless they have an official authorization letter, but we are going to need Rory’s parents to sign that on the form that we gave her last week. And in either case…” Her face has turned a deep red by now. “Maybe you should speak to the principal about this.”

Air condition or not, the temperatures outside were enough to completely soak her in sweat, and Anzu shivers uncomfortably as a chilly bead runs down her spine. It doesn’t exactly enhance her patience for whatever is going on here.

“About what? I understand that you have a new rule, but this is ridiculous. We… Rory’s parents obviously didn’t get the note. Maybe it was a bit too much to ask for a two year old to hold on to a piece of paper and understand that it’s important. But you know me. You know I’m not just some stranger she has never met before. Why don’t you give me an extra copy of that form and let us go home and we’ll get you the authorization first thing next week.”

“I don’t think I can do that. I’m sorry. We… that is, the staff decided that it would be best if Rory was picked up by one of her parents. Or maybe another family friend.”

It takes Anzu a while until her brain registers what that means. When it does, though, her voice comes out more high-pitched, and way louder than she meant it to. “Are you telling me that you don’t want ME, personally, picking up Rory anymore? Why?”

The teacher sighs and gestures for her to step back. After stepping out into the hall with Anzu, she quietly closes the door behind her and sighs. “I’m sorry, Miss Mazaki. I don’t personally… we came to the consensus that it would be better not to… confuse the children further. Rory has been telling some friends about her family and… they have started to ask questions. Like who Rory’s real mother is.”

The girl is obviously the spitting image of Mai, and even if you can’t expect preschool children to know how genetics work, it shouldn’t be so hard to explain that. But angry as the implication that her family is somehow something to be ashamed of makes Anzu, it also stirs up a fear she has been successfuly ignoring for a while now. There will be a point where their acting as though their arrangement is the most natural thing in the world won’t work anymore. She just thought their collective agreement to keep a low profile and not explain their relationship to too many people would buy them a little more time. Sure, when the new baby comes, things are bound to get a little tight in the tiny little flat, so she kind of thought the point where they had to break things off would come then. But maybe that point is now. The twinge of sadness and uncertainty is enough to stop her from arguing. “Fine. I will call Rory’s mother and tell her to come pick her up as soon as she can. Can I at least keep Rory company until then?” That puzzle looked like it was going to get boring soon.

They spend an excruciating half hour stacking colorful blocks and knocking them over again.  
Rory seems happy enough, but Anzu’s knees are beginning to hurt, and the blouse sticking to her back is starting to itch.  
Then another half hour.  
Mai promised she would come by as quickly as possible, but who knows what the traffic is like.  
Surely, she’s been here for three hours by now?

A look at the bright red clock above the door with its comically large numbers – is this some educational thing so the kids learn the numbers faster? Should she remember stuff like that from one of her intro to developmental psychology classes? – tells her it has only been a little more than an hour. Anzu stifles a sigh and shifts into a different position, just as there’s another knock on the door.

She’s pretty sure she’s never been so glad to see Mai’s face in her life. Without waiting to be called in, the blonde strides into the room, huge with pregnancy but somehow still full of the grace that used to make Anzu jealous during her dancing days but now only makes her go weak in the knees. Katsuya trails behind her, looking just as furious as his girlfriend, but unable to keep himself from flashing Rory and Anzu a quick smile.

Wasn’t he supposed to work until six today? He must have found somebody else to cover his shift. Why, though? Anzu scrambles to her feet, and feels her knees literally weaken for a second while bright spots start dancing in front of her eyes. She probably should have had lunch before heading out, but who could foresee that this would take so long? Almost without thinking, she grabs Jou’s arm for support, but instantly feels like she is being watched - and judged. Self-conscious and awkward, she lets go again. 

“We thought it would be a good idea if the three of us had a chat with the principal,” Mai announces and pointedly grabs Anzu’s hand to squeeze it lightly. “Rory, honey, wait for us here? We’ll be back as soon as possible and then we’ll go to dad’s restaurant for lunch, okay?”

Once in the hallway, Anzu stops both of them, holding on to Mai’s hand and clasping one of Jou’s in her other. “What are you two doing?” Her boyfriend shrugs and adjusts the strap of the bag he carries over his shoulder. “Mai said they were giving you a hard time about picking up Rory. So we came here so the three of us can give them hell together.”

Anzu’s heart swells with gratitude. She may be sweaty and uncomfortable, her hands and feet swollen with heat, and probably looks miserable after the humiliation of being told that she is not fit to take care of a child she has loved since before it was born. But the two of them look at her as if they don’t even notice all that. Instead, they’ve dropped everything they were doing to rush to her side because to them, it’s unacceptable that somebody acts like she doesn’t belong with them.

Tears are gathering at the back of her throat, and she doesn’t want to start blubbering just before they march into the principal’s office, so she just squeezes both of their hands even more tightly and nods, before falling into step between her two favorite blondes.

The secretary raises an eyebrow when they enter, but doesn’t question why they are here. Apparently, part of the reason why it took Mai so long to get here is all the phone calls she had to make.  
“Mrs Kurosawa is expecting you.”

She ushers them into the room and Anzu instantly feels a little smaller again when they take their seats in front of the massive desk from which a stern, middle-aged woman is watching them. But then she remembers the look of outrage on Mai and Jou’s faces earlier and feels reassured. They ARE right to be angry, and there isn’t really any reason why she should shrink back and just accept this.

“So.” Apparently, Mai is not going to waste time on small talk. “I’d like to know why my daughter’s teacher claims that my girlfriend, who by the way is known by your entire staff and who I _know_ you yourself have met on several occasions, is no longer allowed to pick up Rory from school. Has she done something that makes you fear for the safety for any of your students, or is this just your outdated idea of what relationships you can and cannot accept between the parents at your school? Because I’m pretty sure I know of at least five classmates of Rory’s who are regularly picked up by non-blood relatives.”

Mrs Kurosawa looks like she needs a moment to collect herself after this attack, and takes a sip from the glass of water on her desk. There are fresh glasses and a pitcher on a tray, and part of Anzu wishes Mai had at least waited until the principal could offer them something to drink. After a minute, the older woman clears her throat and leans forward.

“I’m sure we can clear up this misunderstanding, Mrs Jonouchi.”  
This almost sets Mai off again.  
“Ms will do and it’s still Kujaku, it has been since we enrolled Rory here.”  
It’s Rory’s last name, too, so Anzu is almost sure the woman behind the desk is only doing this out of spite. Surely, she had time to have a look at Rory’s file if she already knew they were coming. But there’s no way of telling Mai to maybe slow down a bit, so she just raises her eyebrows at Katsuya, who is obviously fighting a grin.  
  
“Ms Kujaku, then. I was under the impression that you and Rory’s father were married. Now, if you’re telling me I have this wrong in my files and you are with Ms…” she glances at her computer, “Mazaki, I apologize and we’ll of course be able to sort this out. I’m sure you know that our school is not a hostile environment to same-sex families, in fact, you might know that one of our biggest benefactors is married to a man.”

Katsuya snickers and crosses his legs. “Yeah, we know about Yugi. Met him once or twice, too.” That even earns a smile from Mai, though she still looks angry. And not at all prepared to let this go.

“No, you’re still not understanding. I am not married to Rory’s father, but we _are_ still together. As are Anzu and I, and the two of them. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’d really like to know why this is such a big deal that you were willing to essentially ban her from the school.”

Confronted with the question so head-on, Mrs Kurosawa looks uncomfortable for the first time, but other than adjusting her glasses and briefly avoiding Mai’s gaze, she doesn’t back down. “Ah. Well. You see… Rory has made some comments to her classmates. And I’m just not sure… it seemed to confuse some of the children, to be honest. We have been getting questions from a few parents, as well. It’s not that I’m not prepared to support the less… conventional families belonging to our school. I just feel, if the three of you are still in the process of… figuring things out, maybe it would be best for everyone to keep things quiet for a while. Maybe make sure that only her _actual_ parents pick up Rory from school and attend our events.”

At this, the sadness and embarrassment Anzu has been feeling finally begins to bubble and turns into anger. “There is nothing here that we are ‘figuring out,’ at least nothing that concerns you or any of your students. I’ve been helping to organize the little plays and fairs you put on since I went to this school myself, and you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been involved in a few of them since Rory goes here. So I also happen to know that you are constantly short on parents helping out. And now you’re going to tell me that I can’t do that anymore because it might look funny? To whom, anyway? The working fathers who are so busy with their jobs that they never manage to show up? The divorced parents hooking up amongst each other? I’ve never bothered any of them by asking what exactly their family situation is, can’t you give us the same privacy?”

Kurosawa leans back in her chair and looks exasperated, especially when she notices how smug Mai looks, arms crossed over her belly and a smirk on her face. Still, the principal tries to explain her way out of this one last time. “As I said before, it’s just that it confused some of our students... I understand that you would like your privacy respected, but you have to admit that you _do_ put yourselves on display a little by insisting to show up here as a family…”

“Well, gee.” Katsuya seems to finally have lost his patience, too,, and is cutting her off. “I understand that’s a bit complicated to explain. Maybe if somebody had just told me how _inconvenient_ it is to have too many people care about you when I was a kid, I would have felt a lot better about living with my screw-up of a father who beat the crap out of me on a regular basis. Or hey. My… Mai, when her parents died, I’m sure she would have loved to hear that some kids just have too many parents. Are you actually telling me that Rory should be ashamed of this?”

She doesn’t usually enjoy the suffering of others, but watching the older woman squirm and search for an answer she obviously can’t give feels immensely satisfying to Anzu. So she won't let things go just yet. “And what do you mean by ‘we’re putting ourselves on display,’ anyway?”  
  
“I just mean… telling people that you are a… that the three of you are… is going to give people a certain idea.” There is a hint of redness on Mrs Kurosawa’s face, but she quickly pulls herself together. “And I might add, the way you and Ms Kujaku… sometimes dress is not going to help the matter. This is your private business, of course, but I’m sure you are aware that our school has a dress code. This is not compulsory for parents, of course, but you should be thinking about what you are teaching your daughter when she is expected to follow certain rules, but sees that those same rules do not apply to her – to the adults in her life.”

It takes a lot of self control for Anzu not to jump out of her chair at this. “Your DRESS CODE? You mean the one you apply to your uniforms? The same uniforms that, by the way, have forced me and all the other girls who ever went to this school to wear skirts, but don’t do anything to stop their classmates – and some of the teachers, might I add – from looking up those skirts? And what ideas, exactly, do you think it’s giving anyone that the three of us are in a relationship? It’s not like we are giving out unwanted advice on people's sex lives. Although hey, if I remember this right, there was a _lovely_ brochure you used in some of your biology lessons in my day, which had a lot to say about ‘natural’ sex and procreation. Is that still around…? Because I’m sure, since you already brought up Mr Kaiba, he’d love to hear about that. I bet it would _really_ inspire him to keep funding that new gymnasium.”

This is bullshit, of course. If Yugi cared at all about things like that, he probably would have already done something about it. The fact is, even if he thought about it, he would decide that he couldn’t take out a dubious choice of teaching materials on the kids who would then have to use the old, crappy gymnasium. But lucky for her, Mrs Kurosawa doesn’t know Yugi as well as Anzu does. So the principal just sits there in silence and considers her threat. The three of them stare at her for a while, until Mai finally decides they’ve wasted enough time, and uncrosses her arms again. “Or you could just hand me one of those ridiculous forms, we’ll sign off on the fact that Anzu can pick up Rory from her classes, and we can all go enjoy our afternoon.”

Mrs Kurosawa clears her throat, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, she rummages through a drawer and finally comes up with the form Mai asked for. She slides it across the table and watches silently while all three of them sign it and Anzu fills in her and Rory’s details.

“Lovely.”  
Mai takes the form out of her hands, gets up, and slams the paper down on the principal’s desk with maybe a little more force than necessary.  
“Good afternoon. Come on you two, let’s pick up our daughter and get something to eat, I’m starving.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kiwianna had this headcanon about a copyshipping scenario losely based on [Harper Valley P.T.A.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivUOnnstpg), and it was just too good to ignore.  
> I needed to make some adjustments to make it fit - mostly I really wanted to integrate it into this series, and for that it couldn't be too public, because Seto still needs to be blissfully ignorant about those three. ;-) So the PTA became the prinicpal, but I think this works, too.  
> She's also the one who is responsible for Rory's name, because she mentioned on her drawing of Jou and Mai's [first date](http://www.deviantart.com/art/YGO-First-Date-567425161) how much those two would be like Luke and Lorelai from _Gilmore Girls_... the lesson we learn from this is don't give me any ideas because I will run away with them. :P  
>  Still not entirely sure where I'm taking this whole Yugi/Mokuba business? I have headcanons about them and I think they deserve an awesome story but I'm not sure I'll be able to give it to them. So for now, they are mostly an aggressive reminder that none of 'my' characters are straight. Except maybe Jou. I'm not quite sure about him yet...  
> I also keep thinking that maybe I shouldn't make Anzu the perpetually insecure one, because it seems like too much of a trope. On the other hand, I think that years of hanging out with people who are just a hundred times better at what you do most of the time you spend together will probably leave anyone with a slightly bruised ego (and she handles it well, after all). I'd love to hear what people think, though. Especially since I've lately been thinking about how the way I write their relationship comes across. I don't appreciate the idea that 'you can never love two people equally.' But at the same time, I kind of love the idea of polarshipping being romantic and copyshipping just adoring the hell out of each other and recognizing that because their attraction isn't strictly romantic it isn't any less important or strong.


End file.
